‘I keep hearing painful coughs’: Life on quarantined cruise ship

Things were looking up on Thursday for the more than 2,000 passengers quarantined on a cruise ship in Yokohama, Japan: Meals were coming on a more regular schedule. The internet was upgraded to a wider bandwidth. And there was even official approval to breathe some fresh air.

Still, on the second day of a planned two-week quarantine, there was persistent concern about the spreading coronavirus and dread about long days ahead stuck inside the cabins.

As Japanese health officials concluded the screening of the 273 passengers potentially exposed to the virus, they said that 61 had tested positive. The passengers were removed from the ship and taken to medical facilities.

“I keep hearing painful coughs from a foreigner in a nearby room,” one passenger wrote on Twitter, noting with concern that crew members were delivering meals from room to room. “I might get infected today or tomorrow.”

Other passengers who have been whiling away some of the time on social media told of more hopeful signs. One noted that supplies were being moved into the port and that ambulances were in position. Another said that entertainment crews had been calling guest rooms to cheer people up, and that toilet paper had been distributed.

Some posted a letter that had been delivered to their rooms saying that the ship was negotiating with Japanese quarantine officials to allow small groups with face masks to breathe air on open decks.

“I am so looking forward to it,” said Yardley Wong, a passenger in a windowless room who is traveling with her 6-year-old son. She said permission had been granted, with those in windowless rooms like hers allowed out first.

The cruise ship Diamond Princess, where 10 more people were tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday, is seen next to a bridge at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan Feb 7, 2020. REUTERS

The cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, with a total of about 3,700 people on board, arrived in Yokohama on Monday night after a 14-day trip to Southeast Asia. They have been forced to stay on the vessel since an 80-year-old Hong Kong man who disembarked last month tested positive for the virus.

Princess Cruises, the company that owns the Diamond Princess, has cancelled two other planned cruises on the ship departing from Yokohama this month.

The Diamond Princess is not the only cruise ship caught up in the coronavirus epidemic, which has killed hundreds of people in China. A ship called the World Dream is idling in the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal in Hong Kong after eight people from mainland China who were on a previous journey were found to be infected with the coronavirus.

The World Dream, which is carrying about 3,600 passengers and crew members, had travelled from China to Vietnam in January. It is being held in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor as health officials test passengers, and a top official said a quarantine of the entire ship had not been ruled out.

In Japan, fears were growing in places where the Diamond Princess had made port calls before returning to Yokohama.

Health officials in Naha, the capital of Okinawa prefecture, said that 13 people had left the ship there last Saturday and not returned. Some have left the country.

The 2,600 passengers who disembarked for at least a few hours on Saturday “did not display symptoms at the quarantine screen station,” said Takahiro Hayamizu, an official at the Naha public health office. “We don’t have detailed information on who they were, so we cannot track down their route in Okinawa.”

Officers wearing protective suits carry plastic bags next to an ambulance, near the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where 10 more people were tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday, at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan Feb 7, 2020. REUTERS

Passengers travelled by buses and taxis after arriving in Okinawa, and officials are trying to trace their routes.

“Citizens are concerned and wondering what to do, saying they met passengers at the port,” Hayamizu said.

On board the Diamond Princess, there have been no further health checks since quarantine officers first came on board, said David Abel, a passenger from Britain who has been chronicling his situation in videos posted on Facebook.

“We do not know if there are people on board still that have got symptoms,” he said.

Although the passengers were a long way from going home, there was a sense among some that the vacation was over. Towels and bedsheets were no longer being changed on a regular basis.

“We’re no longer on a cruise,” Abel said. “Those days are gone.”

© 2019 New York Times News Service